From Soviet to Post- or Anti-Soviet: Two L’viv Museums of War in Search of a New Ukrainian Narrative of World War II (original) (raw)

Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research

We are thankful to the staff of the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe in L'viv for their knowledgeable comments and generous support of the project. We are especially thankful to the directors of the two museums discussed, Ivan Kaliberda, Volodymyr Boĭko, and Serhiĭ Palisa, as well as to all other interviewees who generously shared their views and experiences and invited us to commemorative events. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers and the editors of Laboratorium for their helpful suggestions. This article was published as part of the research project "L'viv: Museum of War." It was made possible by the support of the Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria, the Vienna Municipal Department of Cultural Affairs (MA7)-Science and Research Funding, and the Vienna Municipal Department of Cultural Affairs (MA7)-Arts Funding. While most of the historical events that took place in L'viv, Ukraine, during and after World War II are being successively researched, less attention has been paid to their representation throughout the Soviet period and its transformation afterwards. This article looks at two war museums in L'viv representing the most prominent competing historical perspectives on World War II in Ukraine today: the Soviet narrative of heroism and liberation, as put forward by the Museum of the History of the Carpathian Military District, and the Ukrainian narrative of a no less heroic fight for freedom and self-determination, as presented by the Museum of the Liberation Struggle of Ukraine. The first was the state narrative of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, is still supported by many Ukrainian citizens and politicians, and continues to influence ideas about how war should be commemorated; the promoters of the second have hoped to make it the new Ukrainian master narrative, but they encounter a variety of difficulties, which will be addressed in this article. The article examines the circumstances, motives, and goals of the museums' creators, of the exhibitions' narratives (and silences), and their design.